


the street where we began

by liketheroad



Category: Bandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-14
Updated: 2008-12-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 05:11:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2455985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liketheroad/pseuds/liketheroad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>fluffy domestic AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	the street where we began

Spencer and Ryan are extremely weird in a number of ways, but they tend to be very upfront about this fact and seem to enjoy demonstrating it publicly. You're pretty much going to notice it first thing when you meet them, in fact. This tends to happen because they have particular quirks about even just saying hi to people. Its as if Ryan sees it as a personal challenge to be as strange as possible right away to get it over with. Spencer always chooses to point at people he knows instead of waving to them, whether they're standing right next to him or are far away, and Ryan shakes hands every time you run into him on the street or even in the same room of an apartment you both happen to live in. This is what Brendon finds out when he moves into Spencer and Ryan's apartment when his own roommate skips out of town on him one day and just never comes back, leaving Brendon with an apartment he can't afford and a chinchilla named Daisy he's frankly still a little freaked out by. Andy had been a seriously weird and ultimately sketchy dude. Ryan is a big fan of Daisy though; Brendon suspects Daisy was a bigger draw than he was, tenant-wise. Spencer is more neutral on the Daisy front, but he smiles approvingly when Brendon finally has the courage to set up his keyboard in the living room, and he says Brendon makes the best coffee in the world. Except, of course, for Jon Walker, miracle worker and all-around Awesome Dude.

Brendon met Spencer and Ryan in college -- before he had to drop out because his parents cut him off and he needed to start working full time to afford to live. He doesn't mind his job, which is reception in a funky dentist office. The clients can be kind of hilarious, which is nice, and his boss, Dr. Toro, has unspeakably awesome hair and thighs. Best of all, Dr. Toro's best friend is a crazy artist, and he somehow convinced Ray to let him draw vampires menacing cheerfully on the walls. Brendon misses some of his classes, the music ones, mostly, but he teaches guitar and piano lessons on the side, and Ryan and Spencer can occasionally be coaxed into jamming with him in the living room. He still plans to go back to school at some point, but right now he needs the money and the time to figure out what the hell he might actually want to get a degree in. Ryan is kind of a scary genius, though, Brendon noticed that even in the one semester he had a class with Ryan. Ryan is currently doing an English MA with a full ride. Spencer and Ryan have been together forever, the kind of best friends who just shifted effortlessly into lovers in step with puberty. They share a two bedroom loft apartment, which they're able to afford because of Ryan's scholarship, basically. They manage to stretch it pretty far -- Ryan is a compulsive saver and Spencer is a Bargain Hunter Extraordinaire. They only let Brendon pay a minuscule amount of rent, and just wave shushing hands at him whenever he tries to get them to let him pay more.

"You need to save so you can come back to school with us," Spencer always insists, looking Responsible and Caring. Spencer has mastered that look after years of training Ryan to Raise His Expectations, or something.

Brendon would totally feel weirder about the way Ryan and Spencer have taken him under their collective wing, or at least more guilty about it, if they didn't do everything so nonchalantly, like it was the most natural and obvious thing in the world that he would come to live with them despite having been in only one musical theory class with Ryan and having had coffee with them a half dozen times before he had to break his lease. But when it happened, he'd shown up for coffee with them as planned, because he hadn't known what else to do. Spencer liked to arrange weekly coffee dates, because he liked being organized and writing things down, and Brendon would have felt guilty for missing one when Spencer planned them so carefully.

He'd tried to keep the panic out of his voice as they chatted, but Ryan had busted him with a leveling stare after like two minutes. Spencer was a second behind Ryan, and his suspicious bitch-face had Brendon spilling his secrets instantly.

He'd finished with a lame attempt at levity, joking, "So I guess I'm doing some urban camping tonight, cause I can't even afford a hotel, you know?"

Spencer and Ryan hadn't seemed to find it that funny. Instead, they'd engaged in an intense and silent two minute eyebrow conversation that ended with Spencer saying, "Don't be an idiot. You're coming to stay with us."

"Don't question him," Ryan had added imperiously. 

They'd sat there together, looking determined and regal, shoulders touching in a united front and Brendon had just wanted so badly that he couldn't bring himself to say no. Instead he'd nodded, and mumbled thanks, ducking his head and blushing when Spencer grinned like magic and Ryan cracked what was, for him, a truly impressive smile.

They'd returned to what was Brendon's apartment until midnight, collected what belongings of Brendon's were worth taking and headed out, Ryan clutching Daisy to himself blissfully, and cooing at her the whole ride home. Spencer said that, actually, gentle but still pointed, when they got through the door.

He'd smiled at Ryan and then Brendon and said, "It's good to be home," and that had been that.

It's been about three months now, and Brendon still gets happy, fluttery, surprised butterflies in his stomach every time Ryan comes upon him in a room and holds out his hand to shake, or when Spencer comes home and hugs whichever one of them is closer and ruffles his hair while the other one watches and waits for his turn. He still marvels at having two sleepy, grumpy companions at the breakfast table every morning. Still has to hold in delighted laughter when Spencer orders him to snuggle between them on the couch while they channel surf and doze on each other's shoulders most evenings.

He figures it comes down to how long they've been together, how much they live and breathe each other, that neither Spencer or Ryan seem to mind having an extra dude around, demanding hugs and snuggling into bed with them on Sunday mornings, making Spencer read the comics aloud because he does the best voices. Other people might be jealous, or at least suspicious, but Ryan and Spencer never get like that. Of course, Brendon can't imagine why anyone would be willing to give Ryan or Spencer up, if they were lucky enough to get one of them, and they obviously feel the same, so that's probably part of it too. 

Still, Brendon feels it's a pretty poor trade, then, that he repays them for their effortless and generous trust by falling in love with them. To be fair, that is to say, in Brendon's defense, it's not like he planned on it -- the opposite, in fact. He'd already had a little crush on Ryan from when they had a class together and Ryan was constantly saying brilliant and wildly absurd things, and then when he'd met Spencer, he'd been pretty much blindsided by the sharp, sassy exterior and goofy, sweetheart interior. But he'd promised himself he would be good, and would not foster the crush with hopeless day dreaming like he had an unfortunate tendency to do. He'd made a personal vow, even. But the thing was... once he moved in, once they opened their home up and said, 'this is also for you' there hadn't been anyway to stop himself from falling. And it's not even that he's in love with Ryan or Spencer - he's in love with Ryan and Spencer, with them, and what they have and are, together. Which yeah, probably makes it even more complicated and fucked up, but really, he can admit to being the most attention starved, needy person on the planet, so what did he expect was going to happen? He can get so tangled up in this thinking that he can almost convince himself that they have only themselves to blame, being all awesome and snuggly and snarky and hilarious together and just letting him into to all of that, showing him what love and a life shared can be like.

And he knows that they love him too, in their way. They're the best friends he's ever had, easily, closer to real family than he's ever had either, if he's honest with himself. And Ryan and Spencer feel that way about him too. They look at him, he suspects, like a kid brother they adopted or just another stray they've picked up and added to their home. In addition to Daisy, they have a gecko with only three legs named Trevor and a set of budgies named Frog and Toad for reasons Spencer refuses to explain. Ryan likes to carry Daisy around with him everywhere, particularly when he goes Out Into The World, which he is loathe to do. Typically, he tucks Daisy up in his vest and camouflages her presence with an ever-increasing assortment of scarves and neckerchiefs. Generally speaking, passersby and store employees are too weirded out by Ryan to ask him about the worming around going on inside his vest, but when they go to Starbucks to get deliciously expensive coffee and bat their eyes at Jon the Implausibly Hot and Awesome barista, Ryan encourages Daisy to peek out so he and Jon can lean over Ryan's vest murmuring about what a pretty and good little girl Daisy is while Spencer rolls his eyes and Brendon resists the urge to hug the entire lot of them.

So, all in all, it's a pretty kick-ass life. There's more warmth and laughter in it than Brendon had reason to expect. Alone in a new city, with a family three states away that he was barely holding onto it as it was, no friends or real idea about what he wanted to do with his life, he'd expected to be miserable. He doesn't like to think about what would have happened if he hadn't sat next to Ryan in that first class because he had thought Ryan's make-up was kind of outstandingly weird, or if Spencer hadn't laughed at the first joke he told him when they all met up for coffee the first time. He doesn't like to imagine a world where he never met them but he likes to imagine a world where he loses them because he's a love-starved creep who can't keep his hands to himself even less. So he tries to behave and keep the lovestruck looks of adoration to a minimum and continues counting on Ryan's perpetual obliviousness and Spencer's near-constant Ryan-preoccupation to take care of the rest.

The one small kink in Brendon's otherwise brilliant plan seems to come in the form of Jon Walker. He's always shooting Brendon knowing smiles and smirking behind his beard when the three of them come in for their lattes. It's particularly bad when he's on break, and comes to sit with them and try to feed Daisy bits of the pumpkin scones she likes so much.

"Seriously, if you kill my chinchilla, I will cry, Jon. Think about what hell that would be on my make-up." Today, Ryan is sporting a rainbow on one cheek and a little storm cloud on the other. He glares, but doesn't manage to look particularly threatening.

Jon smiles lazily and scratches Daisy between her ears as she nibbles on the bit of scone happily. "I would never hurt such a pretty girl," Jon says calmly, watching her finish the piece with satisfaction. 

Ryan is easily mollified by the likes of Jon Walker, and so only huffs a tiny bit before muttering, "All right then."

Spencer is right there, catching Brendon's eye and rolling his own affectionately, and Brendon smiles in response, trying to ignore the way Jon immediately grins at them knowingly and knocks Brendon's knee under the table. This is a problem, mostly because Ryan notices for once and narrows his eyes at them suspiciously for a second before shaking his head and stirring his coffee in a distinctly grumpy fashion. Spencer notices this, of course, he can track even the slightest shift in Ryan's mood and he automatically shifts in his chair, angling himself closer towards Ryan and laying a hand over Ryan's. They smile at each other, Spencer's warm and confident, Ryan's slightly hesitant, but clearly reassured. Brendon is pleased with himself for being able to discern that much, even if he has no clue what the hell they're talking about in their heads that's making them smile like that.

Jon seems to know though, the smug fucker, and Brendon barely restrains himself from kicking him under the table. Jon seems less pleased about what he's figured out than usual though, which sort of helps. In the way that it puts a totally different kind of worry into the pit of Brendon's stomach, that is. Jon smiles at him though, soft and something like reassuring, and Brendon tries to put the worry out of his mind.

They leave shortly after that. Jon has to go back to work and Spencer seems anxious to get Ryan home. Ryan hates leaving the apartment at the best of times, and the sudden gloominess that has overtaken him clearly has Spencer itching to get Ryan back to the safety of home. Spencer gathers Ryan up, going so far as rearranging Ryan's scarves fussily when they stand up. Once Daisy is suitably snuggled, Spencer holds out an expectant hand to Brendon, pulling him up from the table and giving Jon one last finger point as they walk out. Spencer walks with grim determination on their way back to the apartment, in the middle between Ryan and Brendon, with an arm hooked onto each of their elbows. When they get inside, he takes off his jacket pointedly, and waves them over to the couch, location of all Family Meetings. 

Ryan slinks over obediently, releasing Daisy from his vest and watching her waddle over to the empty chair beside the couch and promptly curling up to sleep. Brendon follows, curiosity alone enough to get him to comply. Not that he's in the business of disobeying Spencer's directives at any time, really. Spencer paces in front of the couch for awhile, glaring at the ceiling and massaging his hands. Eventually he stops and fixes Brendon with a determined look. 

"You know you're always at home here, right?" He asks sharply. Brendon nods dumbly. "You know we want you here and that you belong, right?" 

Brendon nods again, trying to keep the surprised beam to a minimum. Belong is a new word, sending giddy tremors down his spine. It seems to be a suitable answer either way, because Spencer nods in satisfaction and waves a "you see!" hand in Ryan's direction. Ryan hunches a little, sinking deeper into the couch. Brendon does what he always does when Ryan gets like this - slips an arm easily around his shoulders, and teases,

"Why the long face Ryan Rossy? Aren't you excited to have a Brendon of your very own?" He feels reckless and bold in the face of Spencer's declaration, even if it was just an affirmation of the kind of awesome 'you really don't have to look for a new apartment' talks they'd all had before. Spencer seems to find it necessary to issue these on a bi-weekly basis. He's awesome like that.

Ryan glares to cover the smile that starts to form. "And no leaving," he adds loftily, clearly feeling this is an essential addendum to Spencer's pronouncements. Ryan delivers this like a decree, but Brendon can here undercurrents of uncertainty below the bravado.

At this, Brendon can't help but shakes his head and grins - that is so not a problem.

In the spirit of full disclosure, he responds, "Good luck getting rid of me. I know where you live." And then takes advantage of Ryan's momentary distraction to ruffle his hair awesomely. 

Ryan recovers from the smile Brendon's assurance put on his face with a sharp elbow to Brendon's side, and from there they end up wrestling incompetently on the couch, managing to tickle each other more than actually do anything like actual fighting. When Brendon finally gives in and looks up from under where Ryan has him pinned triumphantly, Spencer isn't even in the room anymore, he's in the kitchen making himself tea and humming placidly. 

Brendon starts laughing all over again at this, but Ryan's face shifts into seriousness.

"We mean it, Bren," he says softly, looking into Brendon's eyes.

Brendon feels blush coloring his cheeks and he nods instead of speaking, afraid of the sudden dryness in his throat. 

Ryan bites his lip a little, before nodding and rolling off Brendon. He still looks small on the other side of the couch, so Brendon puts a hand on his knee and squeezes.

"I mean it too."

Ryan smiles, fast and bright, before springing off the couch and jogging over to the kitchen, scooping up Daisy on his way and demanding Spencer make him a sandwich. Spencer is apparently already on the job, and waves at Brendon telling him there's a pickles and peanut butter sandwich (Brendon's favorite) with his name on it.

Brendon makes victory arms and then rushes off to devour his spoils.

*

 

The longer he thinks about it, though, lying awake and alone in the dark, the more Brendon feels like he understands his life way less now than he did before they had that conversation. It was pretty awesome, and all, but the more he turns the conversation over in his mind, the more convinced he becomes he's missing something. Something important.

The thought keeps him up most of the night, and it nags at him throughout the next day as well. He's so off his game Dr. Toro actually comes to his desk to lean over in a concerned fashion and ask him if anything's bothering him at home. Brendon stammers that he's fine, but Ray doesn't seem particularly convinced. Brendon gives him his biggest smile and that gets Ray back in his own office, but clearly something has to be done.

Clearly, he has to go talk to Jon Walker.

"Hey dude, what's up?" Jon greets him with his traditional mellow.

Brendon is in no mood. "What do you know, Jon Walker?!" He interrogates snappishly, pointing a suspicious finger in Jon's face.

Jon smiles. "I know I'm not serving you coffee in your current state."

Brendon waves a hand dismissively. "I'm not here for coffee! I'm here for answers! Tell me your secrets!"

There are three people in line behind him and all of them cough pointedly when Brendon keeps gesturing emphatically while Jon sighs and shakes his head. He murmurs something to his fellow barista, a tiny blonde with a name tag that reads Greta, and she nods and smiles supportively. Seemingly having obtained permission to do so, Jon comes out from behind the counter and leads Brendon by the elbow to the back table reserved for staff. 

"What's this about, Brendon?"

"You know!" Brendon asserts impatiently. 

Jon shrugs. "I'm not sure I do."

"All the smug smirking! You know something I don't know about Ryan and Spencer and it's important, okay! I... they're important."

Jon nods seriously. "I know."

"So?" Brendon presses anxiously.

Jon seems to be weighing his words carefully. Finally, he puts his hands on the table and stares down at them intently. "I'm not sure I... Brendon, it's not my place to be involved." Something pinched and awful happens to Jon's face. "I thought maybe... I wanted it to be but..." He shakes his head. "I was wrong."

Brendon makes a frustrated noise at the back of his throat. "About what?"

"That's between you, Spencer, and Ryan. Really, Brendon. I'm sorry I got you all confused, putting my nose where it didn't belong."

Brendon feels wildly and impossibly as if he's being broken up with in some fashion, which has actually happened to him with friendships before, people telling him he was too demanding and clingy, too much work to be friends with.

He never really expected it from Jon, because Jon got him - Jon sang with him, for god's sake. But it certainly seemed like Jon was on the brink of asking for some space, which was always how it started.

"I'm sorry," Brendon says meekly, because he had done something wrong again and he didn't even know it, and that's always how it starts too.

Jon shakes his head fiercely. "No, Brendon, you're not hearing me. It wasn't anything you did. It was me, stepping on toes. You guys... you're so," he smiles, small and sad. "You're a lot, and it's kind of amazing, being around the three of you. I got... I got a little overwhelmed, you know? Let my hopes run a little wild. I didn't mean to upset Ryan, or overstep my bounds."

This conversation is making less and less sense all the time, but the burning in Brendon's throat isn't getting any less persistent either, so he pushes jerkily away from the table and rushes out of the building before he starts to cry in front of Jon and everyone.

Jon calls his name, but doesn't try to follow.

*

 

The apartment is empty when he gets home, and he curls up with an afghan and Daisy and watches cartoons. He's into his third bowl of Count Chocula when Spencer gets home from class.

Spencer sighs, sounding weary and trying not to be frustrated, "Oh, Brendon. What's wrong?"

Brendon isn't surprised Spencer knows that something is up immediately. He practically planted a flag, after all. He snuffles and looks up at Spencer woefully.

"I think Jon friend-broke-up with me," he explains pathetically, pulling the blanket closer around his neck.

Spencer sputters and arm flails for awhile until he finally gets a hold of himself, "What?" His voice comes out sounding slightly strangled.

Brendon shrugs sullenly. "He kept talking about putting toes and noses where they didn't belong and I don't really know what the hell he was talking about but I'm pretty sure he was telling me to go away."

Spencer stares at him like he's morphed spontaneously into a ficus. "Brendon..." he finally manages, looking a mix of sympathetic and exasperated.

"I don't even know what I did!" Brendon attempts to defend himself. "But I'm... I'm sure he'll still want to hang out with you and Ryan." He would feel really bad about that, otherwise.

Spencer puts his hands on his hips and cocks them impatiently. "Brendon, that's not really the point, I'm saying--"

He's interrupted by the key in the door; Ryan is home.

He freezes in the doorway, taking in Spencer's stance and Brendon's huddled self on the couch.

"Spencer." Ryan's voice is a low, worried whisper.

Spencer walks right over and pushes the bangs out of Ryan's face, kissing his forehead. "It's all right," he promises. "We're just talking some things out."

Ryan curves defensively into Spencer's side, but looks at Brendon when he asks, "What kind of things?"

Spencer squeezes Ryan's hip.

"Brendon thinks Jon doesn't want to hang out with him anymore," Spencer tells him.

Ryan blinks. "Jon?"

"I screwed it up with him," Brendon admits. "I think I weirded him out, or... he thought you were mad," he says suddenly to Ryan, as he remembers it.

Ryan looks guilty, caught. He chews on his bottom lip. 

Spencer separates himself from Ryan and flounces over to the chair beside the couch. He sits away from Brendon, not touching him. Brendon wonders if it's right for him to find that so strange. So wrong.

Ryan stands alone for a minute longer, shoulders up to his chin, glowering, before sighing heavily and following after Spencer.

Once they're all sitting down together, awkward silence takes over.

Brendon wishes he knew what the fuck happened to the relatively sensible life he was leading two days ago.

Spencer nudges Ryan with his knee but Ryan glares at him mutinously before turning on Brendon, demanding,

"What were you doing talking to Jon anyway?" 

Brendon blinks a flutter of surprised blinks. "What?" He doesn't know what to do in the face of Ryan's harsh, hurt tone. "I... I just went there to talk to him about... some stuff."

Ryan spins back around to face Spencer, and they glare at each other expressively for awhile. Spencer seems to win the argument, but Ryan crosses his arms, clearly unhappy about it.

"Brendon," Spencer begins gently. "Do you like Jon?"

Brendon's mouth actually falls open slightly at this. It's... pretty much the last question he expected. Shocking too, is the stiff, anxious way Ryan is hugging himself as he watches Brendon's reaction.

His first thought it simply to say, "Of course I do, he's Jon," but this makes Ryan flinch and Spencer go slightly limp. Brendon sits up straighter, trying to clear his head. "But I... what do you mean, how... do I like him like him? Is that what you mean?" He supposes it is, but it makes so little sense, in correlation with their reactions, that he has to ask. There's enough fucking confusion flying around as it is.

Spencer nods tightly. "Yeah, Brendon. That's what we mean."

"But why?" He can't stop himself from asking.

Ryan looks like he's been slapped. "Why?"

"I just... would that not be okay?"

Ryan makes a choked sound and Spencer's hand clutches automatically onto his knee. "If that's what you want, if he's what you want, Brendon... of course it would be okay. It just... wouldn't be what we expected."

Brendon doesn't really understand why he's still having this conversation, why he isn't shouting NO! NO! I don't want him - I only want you! Except that maybe... maybe that wouldn't be true, and maybe that's why he can't make himself say it. He never imagined he would have possibly been in a situation like this, with them asking him the kinds of questions he's almost brave enough to believe they're asking him, only somehow to find himself on the brink of telling them no. He couldn't even comprehend it, except his mind keeps playing back the still, resigned sadness in Jon's shoulders, the way his hands lay so stiff and bereft on the table between them.

He looks up at them, finally, eyes big and pleading. "He said... I didn't understand it then, I couldn't let myself see, but... he said he thought there might be a place for him with us but that he was wrong about that. I was too busy being sure I was the one there wasn't space for I didn't even listen to what he was saying. Didn't hear." He suddenly jumps up from the couch, filled with restless energy, pacing back and forth as he works it through feverishly in his head. "But you... you two," He stares down at them, wondering if he's really brave enough for what comes next. "There already is a place for me, isn't there? I'm already a part of things - of you - and that's what you were telling me yesterday, what you've probably been telling me from the beginning, but I couldn't see that either, could I? I wanted it so badly I couldn't ever let myself consider it was already mine." He shakes his head, truly amazed by his own stupidity. 

"Brendon, are you...?" Spencer tries, giving up halfway into the sentence, letting in hang there, half hopeful, half afraid. Ryan is silent and wary beside him.

"I love you!" Brendon shouts, barely holding in a peal of hysterical laughter. "I've been falling in love with you both, with this home and this life, from the minute I walked through the door and all this time you were... you were taking care of me and getting me settled, getting me ready, and I didn't even see it!"

Stunned silence follows, finally broken by Ryan who orders, "Say it again. Say that first part again."

Brendon immediately falls to his knees at Ryan's feet, clutching Ryan's hands in his. "I love you," he swears. "Ryan, I love you. Tell me I haven't just really ruined everything like I've been so afraid I was going to for months. Tell me you love me too."

Ryan is lost for words, opening and closing his mouth, so Spencer answers for him. "We love you, Brendon. We've been trying to show you."

Brendon closes his eyes and lets those words be the only thing he hears, the only thing that matters in the world world, for a long and agonizingly perfect moment, before he opens them again and remembers what got this conversation started in the first place.

"And Jon?" They don't say anything, only look back and forth between Brendon and each other helplessly. Brendon forces himself to continue. "I think he might be... I think he might be us. I mean, I think... when I met you it was, it must have been so clear how much I needed, how much I needed you, but Jon... I think he needs us to, he's just more subtle about it."

Ryan twists his hands, "I thought..."

Brendon laughs, because he knows what Ryan thought, finally, and really, it's a good thing someone does. "He's not trying to take me, Ryan," he assures him fiercely. "He's not. And if he was it wouldn't work - it could never work, okay? I said I wasn't going anywhere and even when I didn't know I had all this to stay for that was still true - but that's not what he wants, it's not just me, it was never just me. How could it have been? Who would want me alone when they could have all of us together? How could any of us want that?"

Spencer is staring at Brendon, face filled with too many variations of emotion for any one to be picked out, deciphered. Eventually, though, he nods slowly to himself, the early traces of a smile forming on his face, and says, "We're gonna need a bigger bed."

*

 

Part of Brendon wants to rush out right away and go get Jon - but he's a greedy little shit, at the end of the day, and he just got Ryan and Spencer, you know? He kind of wants a night to have them to himself. He kind of thinks Ryan needs it too. He can see the wheels turning in Ryan's strange head, can see him looking for reasons this isn't going to turn out like he wants, like he needs. Spencer seems a little more steady, a little more sure. But that could just be because he's Spencer, and offering a steady shoulder for Ryan to lean on is what he does. Brendon thinks about Jon's pinched, closed off face and he wants to be good, wants to hunt the streets until he finds Jon and tells him to come home, but there's Ryan, still slightly tense and wary at his side and Spencer, leaning in protectively on the other, and he can't bear to break the moment. Just the night, he promises himself and a Jon he sees in his head. Just the night and we'll bring you home.

*

 

Brendon wakes up in a tangle of limbs and very nearly gets distracted from his mission by all the exposed skin that is suddenly his for the kissing. But it's Jon and while it's pretty fucking amazing with three - it's better with four. Brendon's sure of it, sure that Jon saw this, that he knows it too.

Ryan and Spencer don't take much convincing. Spencer actually helps Brendon lead the charge, coaxing Ryan out of bed with kisses and coffee.

They walk with their elbows hooked, as is their way, down the street to the Starbucks where Jon works. They've had a thousand conversations with Jon, know his favorite music and food and color and smell, where he grew up and the names of his cats, but they don't know where he lives. So they get themselves their regular table and watch the door hawkishly, vowing to wait there all day if necessary. And if Jon isn't working this day, they'll come back the next. And the next.

It ends up only taking about an hour before Jon comes through the door for his shift. Ryan hunches down in his chair, trying to hide behind his many scarves, but Spencer shakes his head at him and Brendon waves wildly.

"Jon! Jonny Walker, over here!" Brendon shouts. He'll make no apologies for it; decorum and love just don't mix. And he, Brendon Urie, is on a mission of love.

Jon looks shocked, more than anything, but he loosens his scarf and makes wavy apologetic hands to his co-workers. They smile indulgently and nod him in the table's direction.

Jon walks over slowly, almost fearfully, and it makes Brendon's heart tighten to see it.

"Hey guys," Jon says when he reaches the table, smiling a small, hesitant smile.

Spencer's response is to beam at Jon like he forgot how awesome he was in the whole of a day that has passed since they last saw each other, and while Ryan shifts closer to Brendon in his seat, his hands turn out towards Jon on the table.

"Jon," Brendon starts. "Jon, you were right and everyone else was wrong!"

Jon blinks and starts to sit down, "What?"

Ryan makes a fluttery set of movements with his hands until finally he gives in and lets them grab out at Jon. Jon lets Ryan hold onto his hands, watching him carefully. "Brendon explained," Ryan is saying. "I thought... I was distracted by Brendon, by how you reacted to him, by how we all do. I didn't see."

"But you saw," Spencer picks up, doing his job, helping to clarify Ryan's words. "You saw all of us and how we were supposed to be."

"Except you were only right the first time! You were wrong when you said there wasn't a place for you - there's a whole big place and you're the only one who fits in it." Brendon finishes, letting all the hope and want come through in his voice, his eyes.

Jon is silent, blank before them. He barely seems to breathe.

"Jon," Ryan says his name like a plea. "Jon, I'm sorry." He whispers it in a hushed breath.

Jon's hands spasm in Ryan's and he shakes his head, but that seems to be all he can manage.

"We want you to come home," says Spencer. Brendon can hear the pleading in those words also.

He just hopes Jon can as well. And that there's still enough hope in Jon to hear the promise in them.

Brendon smiles, because it's easy to smile when he's with these people, easy to trust. His smiles turns into a wild grin when Jon slowly smiles back.

"Jon," Brendon begins in a rush, "we're going bed shopping. We need you to come help us with the measurements."

Three reactions happen at once: Ryan blushes and ducks his head, Spencer nods firmly, and Jon throws his head back and laughs.

Brendon's fingers dance on the table, reaching out to touch all of them, and he lets his smile turn smug and proud. 

"Say yes, Jon," Brendon demands. "Say yes."

Jon's laughter quiets, but it stays around the crinkles of his eyes. He squeezes Ryan's hand and Brendon feels him knock one of Spencer's knees while he jostles Brendon's with the other.

"Jesus christ," Jon says finally, grinning helplessly. "Yes."


End file.
